With drought conditions worsening, here’s how to prepare for wildfires

2024 is likely to go down in history as a red-letter year for wildfires.

Back in February, a fire ignited in Hutchison County and quickly burned more than 1 million acres under dry, warm and windy conditions. The Smokehouse Creek Fire is now considered the largest fire recorded in Texas history.

As fall settles in, along with cooler temperatures, it may be tempting to let one’s guard down when it comes to wildfires. But with drought conditions worsening, burn bans are still in effect for more than 150 Texas counties.

There’s a growing wildfire threat in North and East Texas. And in recent weeks, more than 80 wildfires have burned over 2,200 acres across the state. Now, Gov. Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for much of Texas, and he’s urging Texans to make an emergency plan and keep emergency supplies available.

But how do you prepare for a wildfire? What about during or after one?

Erin O’Connor, with the Texas A&M Forest Service, joined the Standard to share some tips. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: I had this very question when I heard about the governor’s disaster declaration. What do you do to prepare for a wildfire? Isn’t unpredictability sort of the essence of the danger that wildfires pose here?

Erin O’Connor: Absolutely. It’s certainly a daunting task, and it’s something that doesn’t impact us every day. So providing that thought space can be a challenge, but there’s a lot of things that people can do and like very simple things.

So definitely we’re talking about evacuation preparedness – having a plan, so knowing where your family’s going to evacuate to having a supply kit with supplies that we like to say start with the five P’s: people and your pets, prescriptions, papers, personal needs and priceless items. Have enough food and water on hand that you can be self-sufficient for 72 hours.

So things like that will help you if you need to evacuate. But then there’s a lot of little things that you can also do around your home to keep your home safe from on fire.

Like what?

It’s the little things like clearing out your gutters, removing some of that vegetation from around the structure, like within that first five feet.

And so what this is doing, you’re creating a buffer. You’re creating a space between your home and the fire. And so that fire would slow or stop, hopefully, and protect your home. And this buffer is also creating a safe space for firefighters to work in and around your property should they need to.

And of course, you don’t want to be doing all of this when you’re hearing about a wildfire that’s broken out not too far from you. So the central idea to doing this is going ahead, doing it now when you’ve got the time. You come up with that preparedness plan and you talk about it with your family and friends, too, right?

That’s exactly right. This is a year-round thing.

Again, we’re not always faced with fire like every day. But if you do these little things, like on the weekends, clearing out some of that debris from your gutter, having that plan and talking about it on a Saturday, those things will make sure that you’re that much more prepared when a fire does happen.

How do you prepare an evacuation plan before you know which direction the fire might be coming?

So we always recommend having more than one route out of your neighborhood, your community. Whatever that looks like for you – have two or more routes planned just in case one becomes compromised.

Let’s say you’ve heard about a nearby emergency. Maybe you didn’t figure it was that much of a threat. And now you see smoke coming over the tree line. What do you do? What do you do if you find yourself caught during a wildfire or if you’re in an area where there is a wildfire that’s already broken out?

So we recommend that everyone know where to get information. So is that your local news station? Is there a radio station that keeps pretty good updates? Is it your local emergency management fire department? Those kinds of things. Who is going to provide you that information and know where to get that.

And then if you feel unsafe, whether you’ve been told to evacuate or not, go early. You don’t have to wait to be told to leave. If you feel unsafe or you feel like you need to get your family out of harm’s way, do that. Like the worst that happens is you go home a couple hours later and everything’s fine.

There’s a special threat from smoke, as I understand it, because, of course, smoke exposure can irritate your sinuses. You can end up with shortness of breath if you have any breathing issues – asthma, that sort of thing – that can be problematic if there’s a wildfire in your area, right?

Absolutely. And so if there’s smoke in the area, we recommend – especially to vulnerable populations – limiting your outdoor exposure, keeping the windows and doors of your home closed. If you have to run the air conditioner, using like a high-efficiency particulate air filter. Little things that you can do that can also make that a little bit better and easier for folks.

Obviously avoid cooking as much as possible. And for goodness sakes, don’t burn candles or use fireplaces.

Absolutely.

Now, after a wildfire, I know the first thing a lot of folks are desperate to do is to get back home – you know, find out about animals or pets and priceless possessions. What do you need to keep in mind after a wildfire?

So even after the fire is out, there can still be remnant heat. There’s ash. There’s obviously a lot of damage that has occurred. So we need people to be cautious, to be careful when they’re reentering an area.

Downed electrical lines, that’s a major issue.

Exactly. Absolutely. So they need to be cautious. Local officials are usually out and helping with that. They’re just being very careful, checking the surrounding area, entering their property with caution.

A lot of these places have propane tanks, right? I mean, what do you do about that? Is there anything you can do to prepare or to somehow disengage it?

So ahead of a fire, you can treat a propane tank like a structure where you can kind of clear vegetation from around it, make sure that the fire doesn’t reach it.

But in the event that you’re returning home, call 911. Call your service provider if you think it might be damaged or if there’s a leak or if you’re just worried and have them come out and check on that for you.

Of course, we’ve been talking a lot about preparation here. But what about prevention? Because obviously, the governor feels that it’s important enough to come out with this disaster declaration. I suppose you want to get out the word about the importance of what you do that might spark a wildfire.

Absolutely. And in the state of Texas, more than 90% of our fires are caused by humans, which means that they’re completely preventable.

So when conditions are hot and dry, windy, like what we’re currently experiencing, we just encourage everyone to be very cautious – to avoid doing any outdoor activity that may cause a spark, like debris-burning or, you know, working on equipment, welding safely… Things like that.

Yeah. And respect those burn bans, too.

Absolutely.

Related Post